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Wednesday, May 9, 2012

A stunning debut reminiscent of the beloved novels of John Hart and Tom Franklin, A Land More Kind Than Home is a mesmerizing literary thriller about the bond between two brothers and the evil they face in a small western North Carolina town

For a curious boy like Jess Hall, growing up in Marshall means trouble when your mother catches you spying on grown-ups. Adventurous and precocious, Jess is enormously protective of his older brother, Christopher, a mute whom everyone calls Stump. Though their mother has warned them not to snoop, Stump can't help sneaking a look at something he's not supposed to—an act that will have catastrophic repercussions, shattering both his world and Jess's. It's a wrenching event that thrusts Jess into an adulthood for which he's not prepared. While there is much about the world that still confuses him, he now knows that a new understanding can bring not only a growing danger and evil—but also the possibility of freedom and deliverance as well.

Told by three resonant and evocative characters—Jess; Adelaide Lyle, the town midwife and moral conscience; and Clem Barefield, a sheriff with his own painful past—A Land More Kind Than Home is a haunting tale of courage in the face of cruelty and the power of love to overcome the darkness that lives in us all. These are masterful portrayals, written with assurance and truth, and they show us the extraordinary promise of this remarkable first novel.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Wiley Cash is from western North Carolina. He has a Ph.D. in English from the University of Louisiana-Lafayette and teaches English at Bethany College. He lives with his wife in West Virginia. This is his first novel.

AN INTERVIEW WITH WILEY CASH FROM SHELFARI NEWSLETTER:

In featuring Wiley Cash, SHELFARI asked him several questions to which he gave fascinating answers. Here are just three questions I thought you might like in order to get to know this new author better.

ON YOUR NIGHTSTAND NOW?

I have advance copies of both Shine, Shine, Shine by Lydia Netzer and Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk by Ben Fountain. I'm really enjoying them, and I think they'll both be big books by two very talented writers. Because they're advance copies, I feel like I know a secret that a lot of other folks don't know yet.

BOOK THAT CHANGED YOUR LIFE?

Toni Morrison's Song of Solomon really changed my life. I read this book the summer after my freshman year of college when I was going through a particularly difficult time. I read it in just a couple of days, and when I finished I immediately read it again. In that novel, Morrison creates a palpable world and peoples it with characters you come to know and believe in as if they exist outside the book. I was so thankful that she gave me refuge where I could hide from my own world during that time. It made me want to be a writer so I could offer people the same thing.

BOOK YOU MOST WANT TO READ AGAIN FOR THE FIRST TIME?

One is Bobbie Ann Mason's In Country. I'm a child of the 1980s, but at the time I wasn't quite old enough to be aware of the societal and cultural repercussions of the Vietnam War. This book made both of those very clear to me. And the final scene? While reading that I was sitting by a pool with my mother-in-law in Las Vegas. I was weeping uncontrollably, but I kept trying to hide it. She was like, "What's wrong with you?" I think I told her I had sunscreen in my eyes. And then I kept weeping.

GUEST REVIEW:

It has been a while but I am thrilled to have Steve Capell back to review this book. Steve and his lovely wife live in the Kansas City area. Steve is a voracious reader and enjoys time with his dogs and his grandson. Steve also writes his own blog, TRUE MEDIA SOLUTIONS, so please visit him there as well.

And now, aGUEST REVIEW from Steve....

Nine-year-old Jess Hall and his brother Christopher, nicknamed "Stump," get caught spying on their mother, Julie, who is secretly meeting with Carson Chambliss, her pastor.

Chambliss has lived a life that has physically scared him both from an outward appearance and also internally scared morally, but this hasn't stopped the people of Marshall, North Carolina of accepting him has their scarred and charismatic preacher. Stump has been mute from childbirth, but Julie believes that pastor Chambliss can heal her son, but she finds out that kind of trust only leads to a disastrous conclusion. The people that have placed their trust in Chambliss would never say anything to discredit his authority even though his cultish actions are a hidden secret by newspapers that have been hung over all the windows in the small church ... after all if you’re not a member you have no business knowing what goes on every Sunday. Chambliss has a godlike authority ... not because God gave it to him, but because the congregation has willed it to be and Chambliss knows he has the power. Clem Barefield, Madison County Sheriff, makes it his mission to find out what has happened behind all the closely held secrets, but his work isn't going to be easy amidst the evil that exists within the cultish church. Clem finds his first clue to the evil persona that exits inside Chambliss when he speaks to Adelaide Lyle, the towns midwife. Adelaide knows Chambliss power over the people of Marshall because she had personally witnessed Chambliss' evil power in her own life. Clem is determined to bring justice to the town of Marshall, but sometimes justice isn't delivered the way one might expect. MY THOUGHTS:I have found some amazing debut works of literature and Wiley Cash's debut novel A Land More Kind Than Home has met the challenge and as such this novel will be allowed to reside on a special book shelf along side a few other books because this book will be one I will want to keep in my library and read again. So why does Cash's novel garner such select book shelf real estate? There are multiple reasons but first and foremost is the brilliant plot that took root inside my soul much like the dust that found every pore on my body while bailing hay on a hot August summer day in Kansas back when I was helping my uncle on his farm. No matter how much I tried to shower the sweat and filth away it seemed to cling to my living body and this novel will cling too your emotional core and not let go as well. I believe the one way that Cash is able to achieve this is through his character development and use of multiple first person narrators throughout his novel. The dialog between the characters allowed me to see the human faults and defects that exist with each character. I didn't know who I felt the most empathy for as each character brought their own set of ideas and troubles to this fast paced emotional plot. The second reason that this novel has overwhelmingly got my endorsement is the rich descriptive language that drew me into the text. I am going to share with a small portion of Cash's writing so that you can read the richness that is exhibited throughout this novel:"I sat there in the car with the gravel dust blowing across the parking lot and saw the place for what it was, not what it was right at the moment in the hot sunlight, but for what it had been maybe twelve or fifteen years before: a real general store with folks gathered around the lunch counter, a line of people at the soda fountain, little children ordering ice cream of just about every flavor you could think of, hard candy by the quarter pound, moon pies and crackerjack and other things I hadn't thought of tasting in years. And if I'd closed my eyes I could've seen what the building had been forty or fifty years before that, back when I was a young woman: a screen door slamming shut, oil lamps lit and sputtering black smoke, dusty horses hitched to the posts out front where iceman unloaded every Wednesday afternoon, the last stop before he headed up out of the hollar, the bed of his truck deep with cold water."The novel is about good and evil, social integrity and decadence, and how love sometimes isn't enough to overcome the hatred that dwells deep inside the human soul. My final thought as I closed the cover of Wiley Cash's novel and placed his book on my bookshelf is I hope he continues to write because society would be robbed of great literature if we only had one novel to read from this author. I have given this book a 5 rating out of 5.--Steve Capell

PRAISE FOR A LAND MORE KIND THAN HOME:

“Absorbing . . . Cash uses well-placed flashbacks to flesh out his characters . . . and to illuminate a familiar truth of Southern lit: Many are the ways that fathers fail their sons.”

— Entertainment Weekly

“As lyrical, beautiful, and uncomplicated as the classic ballads of Appalachia, Cash’s first novel is a tragic story of misplaced faith and love gone wrong . . . In a style reminiscent of Tom Franklin and John Hart, Cash captures the reader’s imagination.”— Library Journal (starred review)"This book will knock your socks off. It’s so good to read a first novel that sings with talent. Wiley Cash has a beautifully written hit on his hands.”— Clyde Edgerton, author of The Night Train“Whew! Wiley Cash is the real deal and his first novel is an atmospheric crossroads filled with characters who long for better, but know that their best will never be good enough, is dense with stories intersecting like the branches in a laurel hell.”

— Nancy Peacock, author of Life Without Water

“Cash’s debut novel explores Faulkner-O’Connor country . . . As lean and spare as a mountain ballad, Cash’s novel resonates perfectly, so much so that it could easily have been expanded to epic proportions. An evocative work about love, fate and redemption.”

— Kirkus Reviews

“A chilling descent into the world of religious frenzy in small town North Carolina . . . The languid atmosphere seduces, and Cash’s fine first effort pulls the reader into a shadowy, tormented world where wolves prowl in the guise of sheep.”

— Publishers Weekly

“Cash’s debut about a town gripped by a menacing preacher has the timeless qualities of the Old Testament. . . . [a] very good book.”

— The Daily Beast

GIVEAWAY

THANKS TO THE GOOD FOLKS AT HARPERCOLLINS BOOKS, I HAVE ONE COPY OF THIS DEBUT NOVEL BY WILEY CASH TOGIVE AWAY TO ONE LUCKY FOLLOWER

--U.S. RESIDENTS ONLY--NO P. O. BOXES, PLEASE--INCLUDE EMAIL ADDRESS IN COMMENT --ALL ENTRIES/COMMENTS MUST BE SEPARATE IN ORDER TO COUNTAS MORE THANONE ENTRY

HOW TO ENTER:

+1 ENTRY:READ ABOUT THE BOOK ABOVE AND COMMENT ON SOMETHING YOU FOUND INTERESTING ABOUT A LAND MORE KIND THAN HOME THAT WOULD MAKE YOU WANT TO WIN THIS AUDIO BOOK

+1 MORE ENTRY:BLOG OR TWEET ABOUT THIS GIVEAWAY AND LEAVE A LINK I CAN FOLLOW IN THE ENTRY

+1 MORE ENTRY:COMMENT ON SOMETHING YOU FIND INTERESTING AT WILEY CASH'S WEBSITE HERE

+1 MORE ENTRY: COMMENT ON ONE CURRENT GIVEAWAY OF MINE YOU HAVE ENTERED. IF YOU ENTERED MORE THAN ONE, COMMENT SEPARATELY FOR EACH AND YOU WILL GET AN ENTRY FOR EACH ONE

+1 MORE ENTRY:COMMENT ON ONE WAY YOU FOLLOW MY BLOG. IF YOU FOLLOW MORE THAN ONE WAY, YOU CAN COMMENT SEPARATELY AND EACH WILL COUNT AS AN ENTRY

Hi! I would like to read this book due to the characters and plot line. I emailed the author briefly when I found out about his book. He was really nice. He has the same name as my grandfather..not many people named Wiley.:)aliasgirl1976@yahoo.com

I would want to read this book because the About the book section compares thie author to John Hart, one of my favorite authors and because I have a special bookshelf like Steve Capell does and if it is on his it will probably be on mine.

This book seems like the kind of book that would have it all: drama, mystery, and insight into the human psyche. It sounds very, very interesting and I'd love for a chance to win this novel, so thank you for the amazing giveaway opportunity :D

I thought "The Front Porch" section on Wiley Cash's website was rather cool. He chronicles his appearances, and book clubs/organizations he frequents/visited. I especially loved the mention of "Book Pregnant"...interesting name, don't you think!?!? :)